2008 Woodie Awards
Tragedy of 9/11 should not be forgotten in American spirit
Patrick Carney '08
Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Opinion
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It was a morning you only see in movies or on postcards. The sky was perfectly blue with rich white clouds; a good omen. Across the East Coast of the United States, kids hurried off to the beginning of a new school year as their parents fought the traffic on their way to work; a typical early fall morning. However, the calming peace of the stunning weather would not last as the sky turned from a moment of tranquility to one of pure horror.
On September 10, 2001, most Americans had never heard of Osama bin Laden and even fewer knew of Al-Qaeda. Our biggest concern was whether somebody could stop the Yankees from a fourth consecutive win in the World Series. Our firefighters and police officers were just regular people, our neighbors. On airplanes, we concerned ourselves with getting the window seat rather then the ethnicity of the passenger across the aisle. Terrorists were people you heard about on the news from the Middle East correspondent talking about a suicide bomber in some town you had never heard of in a country ending in 'istan.' Most importantly, we were safe. We had two oceans to protect us from the evils across the world. This was our mindset as we went to bed on that Monday evening.
Every American knows exactly where they were when they heard the news. I was sitting in the school chapel for religion class in my second year of high school. "A plane hit the World Trade Center," my teacher explained. That instant, my life, as well as the life of every American, changed forever. Secretaries turned on radios, students flooded the computer labs, and teachers gathered around televisions to catch a glimpse of what had happened. From that very first time we saw the footage of the planes hitting the Twin Towers to the news clips of that same video six years later, our hearts still break across the world. The sight of the towers falling and the people running for safety will never become any easier to watch.
A lot was lost on that early fall morning. Bono captured the loss from that September morning in "The Hands That Built America." "It's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline, innocence dragged across a yellow line." If we didn't lose a loved one, we lost our innocence and confidence, which were suddenly replaced by fear and vulnerability. That one day changed the world, and we are still seeing the results. We no longer still see the smoke rising in lower Manhattan, but we see a nightly update on the color-coded terror alert system. We don't see the emergency responders digging through wreckage, but we see police officers armed with machine guns patrolling our subways and airports. These are our reminders of the carnage of that day.
On September 10, 2001, most Americans had never heard of Osama bin Laden and even fewer knew of Al-Qaeda. Our biggest concern was whether somebody could stop the Yankees from a fourth consecutive win in the World Series. Our firefighters and police officers were just regular people, our neighbors. On airplanes, we concerned ourselves with getting the window seat rather then the ethnicity of the passenger across the aisle. Terrorists were people you heard about on the news from the Middle East correspondent talking about a suicide bomber in some town you had never heard of in a country ending in 'istan.' Most importantly, we were safe. We had two oceans to protect us from the evils across the world. This was our mindset as we went to bed on that Monday evening.
Every American knows exactly where they were when they heard the news. I was sitting in the school chapel for religion class in my second year of high school. "A plane hit the World Trade Center," my teacher explained. That instant, my life, as well as the life of every American, changed forever. Secretaries turned on radios, students flooded the computer labs, and teachers gathered around televisions to catch a glimpse of what had happened. From that very first time we saw the footage of the planes hitting the Twin Towers to the news clips of that same video six years later, our hearts still break across the world. The sight of the towers falling and the people running for safety will never become any easier to watch.
A lot was lost on that early fall morning. Bono captured the loss from that September morning in "The Hands That Built America." "It's early fall, there's a cloud on the New York skyline, innocence dragged across a yellow line." If we didn't lose a loved one, we lost our innocence and confidence, which were suddenly replaced by fear and vulnerability. That one day changed the world, and we are still seeing the results. We no longer still see the smoke rising in lower Manhattan, but we see a nightly update on the color-coded terror alert system. We don't see the emergency responders digging through wreckage, but we see police officers armed with machine guns patrolling our subways and airports. These are our reminders of the carnage of that day.
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